Burned
Burned is the twenty-second in season five of . Synopsis While Horatio investigates a case of revenge on a scorned ex-lover, a CSI's personal problems taint the investigation and Horatio is forced to fire a member of his team. Plot A young woman, Claire Gibbs manages to survive the fire that destroys her house, but her fiancé, Brett Morrison, isn't so lucky. Claire tells the CSIs she's had problems with her ex-boyfriend, Anthony Bryant, stalking her. Horatio locates Anthony's car pulled over by the side of the road and is surprised to find Yelina Salas by it. Yelina is working as a private investigator and was hired by Anthony's lawyer to follow Anthony. She's had an eye on him for 12 hours, meaning he can't be the killer. Anthony confirms it, and insists Claire is making something out of nothing. Alexx informs Natalia that Brett died when he breathed in superheated air, and she gives the CSI a sample of flesh found in his teeth. The DNA matches a man named Michael Lipton, who asks specifically for Ryan when he's brought in. Ryan owes him money and Lipton tries to blackmail Ryan into letting him go, but the CSI doesn't fall for the bait and sends Natalia in instead to question him. After some initial surliness, Lipton admits he hired Brett's company to plan his sister's wedding and when Brett defaulted, the two men fought. Delko tests a print from a shard of glass he found and gets a match to a man named Ron Cramer. Calleigh finds the man--and his gun, which has glass lodged into it. Ron claims he happened across the house on fire and broke the glass of a window to see if he could help, but didn't find anyone around. When Fire & Rescue clears the house, Calleigh and Delko return to it and find a lighter--with Claire's prints on it. Claire tells them she found the lighter the day before after Brett argued with his business partner, Jeff Sader. Jeff tells the CSIs that Claire's ex was causing so many problems that he intended to buy Brett out of the business. Yelina, who has been following Michael Lipton at Horatio's behest, tells Horatio that she's learned Michael is a bookie--and she also shares photos with him of Ryan turning money over to Lipton. Horatio confronts Ryan, but the CSI insists its a personal matter. Returning to the house once again, Delko and Calleigh discover the origin of the fire--that vaprs from the water heater ignited and started the blaze. When Calleigh gets a piece of glass in her hand, Delko removes it and discovers it's unsinged, meaning it was broken before the fire started. Even more mystifying, two charred bodies are also found at the house. Horatio and Delko confront Ron, who admits that he was hired by Anthony to shoot Brett. Anthony is arrested, and a search of his car uncovers a pair of women's underwear. Alexx shows Calleigh that the burned bodies from the house have already been autopsied, indicated that they were corpses when the blaze began. Calleigh confronts Claire: she and Brett set Anthony up, attempting to fake their own deaths and pin it on him by planting the underwear in his car. Claire poured the gasoline in preparation, but then she and Brett fell asleep waiting for Anthony to do his daily drive-by of their house so that witnesses could place him at the scene, and when they awoke, the fire had already started. Horatio confronts Anthony, who had found the underwear in his car and realized they were setting him up, and vows that Anthony will never see Claire again. Ryan Wolfe reports for duty only to have his entrance to the lab blocked by Stetler, who abruptly fires him and demands his gun and badge. Horatio bids Yelina farewell, and cautions her about the dangers of PI work. Cast Main Cast *David Caruso as Horatio Caine *Emily Procter as Calleigh Duquesne *Adam Rodríguez as Eric Delko *Khandi Alexander as Alexx Woods *Jonathan Togo as Ryan Wolfe *Rex Linn as Frank Tripp *Eva LaRue as Natalia Boa Vista Guest Cast * Sofia Milos as Yelina Salas * David Lee Smith as Rick Stetler * Boti Ann Bliss as Maxine Valera * Rebecca Gayheart as Claire Gibbs * Rib Hillis as Brett Morrison * Chris Bruno as Jeff Zader * Innis Casey as Michael Lipton * Page Kennedy as Ron Cramer * Hervé Clermont as Fire Captain Major Events *Ryan is fired from his job as a result of not telling Horatio about a connection to one of the suspects in the case. *Yelina Salas returns to Miami and it's revealed that she's now working as a Private Investigator. See Also Category:CSI: Miami Episodes